Process of producing illustrations.



A. L. ORMAY.

PROCESS 0F PRODUCING ILLUSTRATIONS. y

APPLICATION HLEn'APfLG. |915.

l l 43,99 l Patented June 22,1915.

` N i i HIHH" l E lm/E Ton Mz I. THE NORRIS PETERS CO., PHOYU-LITHO., WASHINGTON, D. C.

; @M/ZZ' FFE@ niihtfllh@ PATENT FFlFla.

ARTHUR L. ORMAY, 0F BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR T0 HILL PUBLISHING GO., OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

PROCESS 0F PRODUCING- ILLUSTRATIONS.

Maasai.

Application filed April 6, 1915.

To all 'whom it may concern Be it known that I, ARTHUR L. ORMAY, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Brooklyn, county of Kings, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes of Producing Illustrations, of which the following is a specication, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof.

My invention relates to processes of producing illustrations for books, magazines and the like and has reference to a method which is especially applicable to the production of illustrations of a technical character.

Omitting from consideration the obsolete wood engraving,-the two common forms in constant use are the halftone and line engraving. As a pictorial illustration the halftone is very largely used and possesses qualities that are difficult to surpass. It is however, not well adapted for detailed technical illustrations because important features of design are apt to be obscured by various shadows, the internal mechanism is not disclosed, and there is practical difficulty in applying dimensions and notes. Furthermore, the halftone necessitates considerable care in the printing process in order to secure good results. The line engravings of projected views of the object to be illustrated in the conventional form of plan, elevations and sections, are also very commonly used but have the disadvantage of requiring a certain amount of study, particularly ifv the observer is not entirely familiar and constantly in practice in the reading of drawings of this character.

It has been my aim to produce an illustration which shall combine many of the advantages of both the halftone and the line engraving and which may be produced at a` relatively small cost and therefore shall be practicable for technical magazines, books and the like. The only illustration which approximates the illustrative qualities of my invention are wash drawings but these, as is well known, are very costly and in fact their expense is prohibitive for a great majority of magazine and book illustrations.

For convenience, I have termed my invention background perspective, but as will be clearly set forth hereinafter, the process of my invention is very simple and requires Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented all une 22, 1915..

Serial No. 19,598.

no highly skilled labor as in the case of perspective drawings.

Other objects and advantages of my invention will be set forth hereinafter, and in order that my invention may be thoroughly understood, l will now proceed to describe the same in the following specification and then point out the novel features thereof in appended claims.

Referring to the drawings: Figure l illustrates a line drawing, the making of which constitutes the first step in the process of my invention. Fig. 2 is a negative produced by photographing the drawing of Fig. l. Fig. 3 is a partly finished copper plate or line engraving produced from the negative of Fig. 2 and from a halftone screen with the part thereof which was produced from the negative completely covered. Fig. a shows an illustration made in accordance with my improved process and from the finished plate which is shown in a partly completed condition in Fig. 3.

If it is desired to illustrate a part of a machine for a technical journal for example, with the dimensions of such parts and notes on the illustration thereof, it is first necessary to' make a line drawing of the desired part, similar to that shown in Fig. l. If the part is available, a photograph of it is first obtained. The edges and other parts which would be represented by lines in a line drawing, may be then outlined in ink directly on this print so that they will stand out through a tracing cloth or paper and an unskilled draftsman then traces the inked print to produce a perspective line drawing of the object. Such a drawing should have a very small amount of line shading to follow the shadow shading on the photograph. Dimensions and notes are then put directly on the tracing sheet or paper and a perspective line drawing such as that shown in Fig. 1 results. Such a drawing can be made to bring out the pertinent points of the part and to omit unimportant details. On it the inner surfaces which are visible to the eye may be brought out as they cannot be on a photograph, and from it may be omitted the shadows which only obscure important features.

VIf desired parts may be shown broken away to disclose the inner portions of the structure which would not be visible otherwise.

This tracing will usually be made on a relatively large scale as compared to the scale of the final engraving, rin order that small discrepancies in the production of the line drawing may not be apparent in the finished product. If the original photograph is not sufliciently' large and clear in detail a photographic. enlargement of the same is made and the same procedure followed as above outlined.

The sheet of tracing cloth or paper is made up in the desired proportions, with one or more drawings such as shown in Fig. l, located on it in the position desired for a page or sheet of the publication. It is evident that tracings of this character can be produced very rapidly by relatively unskilled draftsmen at a small expense. The tracing sheet is then photographed producing a negative as shown in `Fig. 2. A photosensitized copper plate is then printed from the negative of Fig. 2, without exposing the background which is, of course, covered by the black in the negative. Then the copper plate is gamboged or coated with soluble matter, to cover that part of its surface which is going to form'the background. The partly coated copper plate is then covered with an opaque material such as with etchers ink or asphaltum, after which it is subjected to washing which removes the gamboge but leaves the image itself ink coated. After lthis treatment the copper plate is exposed again, this time to light admitted through a halftone film of desired mesh. This leaves the plate in the condition in which it is seen in Fig. 3. Then the plate is etched to make it ready for use and it is available for producing illustrations as shown in Fig. 4:. Instead of producing the gray background effeot by means of a halftone screen, it may be treated with the Benday process, if desired. Y

It will be `readily observed that the illustration made in accordance with my invention combines the pictorial attention-attracting quality of the halftone with the detailed informative properties of a set of dimensioned and annotated line engraving projected views.

The pictorial effect is attained by reason ofthe fact that the surface shading is used very sparingly, the principal contrast existing between the drawing itself and the background which makes the drawing particularly prominent and attractive. The result is that an artistic effect is attained without the services of expensive talent and the illustrations set forth the ideas which they are intendedv to convey in a simple and con-- densed form.

My invention is particularly adapted for a'ield of journalism in which the design is the most important feature rather than a complete presentation of all of the-details,

although it is also very well adapted for trade catalogues, books, and for the production of detailed drawings for the use of workmen who are not sul'liciently skilled to read drawings having projected views. In fact, projected drawings may be very advantageously supplemented bythe drawings of my invention for the purpose of conveying quickly to the mind of the workman the form of the part or article to be made.

My invention is capable of wide application and the steps of my process may be modified in various details without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention, and I intend only such limitations as are imposed by the appended claims.

What I claim is:

l.. The process of producing plates for pictorial illustrations which consists of making a negative from a shaded line drawing, printing from said negative on a photo-sensitized metallic plate, gamboging the parts of said plate which surround the image thereon, coating the gamboged plate with an opaque material, dissolving from said plate the coated gamboging matter, treating the part of said plate which is thus uncoated'to produce a shaded background producing portion, and etching the plate.

2. The process of producing plates for pictorial illustrations which consists of making a negative from a shaded line drawing, printing from said negative on a photosensitized metallic plate, gamboging the parts of said plate which surround the image thereon, coating with ink the gamboged plate, dissolving from said plate the coated gamboging matter, exposing the partially inked plate to light through a half tone film, and etching the plate.

3. The process of producing pictorial illustrations which consists of making a negative from a shaded line drawing, printing from said negative on a photo-sensitized metallic plate, gamboging the parts of said plate which surround the image thereon, coating the gamboged plate with an opaque material, dissolving from said positive plate the coated gamboging matter, treating the part of said plate which is thus uncoated to produce a shaded background producing portion, etching the plate and printing from said plate.

4. The process of producing pictorial illustrations which consists of making a negative from a shaded line drawing, printing from said negative on a photo-sensitized metallic plate, gamboging the parts of said positive plate which surround the image thereon, inking the gamboged plate, dissolving from said plate the inked gamboging matter, exposing the partially inked plate to light through a halftone film, etching the plate and printing from said plate.

5. The process of producing plates for pictorial illustrations which consists of making a line tracing from a photograph of the article to he illustrated, making a negative from' said tracing, printing from said negative on a photo-sensitized metallic plate, gamboging the parts of said plate which surround the image thereon, inking the gamboged plate, dissolving from said plate the inked gamhoging matter, treating the part of said plate which is thus uninked to produce a shaded background producing portion and etching the plate.

6. The process of producing plates for pictorial illustrations which consists of taking a photograph of the article to he illustrated accentuating the edges of the article as shown on said photograph, making a line tracing with a small amount of line shading thereon from said photograph, making a negative from said tracing, printing from said negative on a photo-sensitized metallic plate, gamhoging the parts of said plate which surround the image thereon, inking the gamboged plate, dissolving from said plate the inked gamboging matter, treating the part of said plate Which is thus uninked to produce a shaded background producing portion, and etching the plate.

7. The process of producing plates for pictorial illustrations which consists of taking a photograph of the article to be illustrated accentuating the edges of the article as shown on said photograph, making a line tracing with a small amount of line shading thereon from said photograph, making a negative from said tracing, printing from said negative on a photo-sensitized metallic plate, gamhoging the parts of said plate which surround the image thereon, inking the gamhoged plate, dissolving from said plate the gamhoging matter, exposing the partially inked plate to light through a half tone iilm and etching the plate.

8. The process of producing pictorial illustrations Which consists of taking a photograph of the article to be illustrated accentuating the edges of the article as shoWn on said photograph, making a line tracing With a small amount of line shading thereon from said photograph, making a negative from said tracing, printing from said negative on a photo-sensitized metallic plate, gamboging the parts of said plate Which surround the image thereon, inking the gamboged plate, dissolving from said plate the inked gamboging matter, treating the part of said plate which is thus uninked to produce a shaded background producing portion, etching the plate,and printing from said plate.

9. The process of producing pictorial illustrations Which consists of taking a photograph of the article to loe illustrated accentuating the edges of the article as shown on said photograph, making a line tracing with a small amount of line shading thereon from said photograph, making a negative from said tracing, printing from said negative on a photo-sensitized metallic plate, gamboging the parts of said plate which surround the image thereon, inking the gamhoged plate, dissolving from said plate the inked gamboging matter, exposing the partially inked plate to light through a half tone ilm, etching the plate, and printing from said plate.

In Witness whereof l have hereunto set my hand this 5th day of April 1915.

ARTHUR L. ORMAY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patenti,

Washington, D. C. 

